1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to an improvement in the structure of a clamp for disposing and securing metal pipes having relatively small diameters, i.e., about 30 m/m or less, which are generally used as feed passages for supplying oil or air in automobiles or various machines, installations or the like, or resin tubes having diameters of about 30 m/m or less.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
One example of conventional clamps of the type described above is shown in FIG. 7. As illustrated, the longitudinally central portion of a rectangular piece of plate is bent in the shape of a cylinder which extends laterally, thereby defining a gripping wall 12 for clamping a pipe P'. Two flat end portions which are contiguous with the gripping wall 12 are defined as support walls 13 and 13' which are superposed one upon the other. The support walls 13 and 13' are provided with respective mounting bores 14 and 14' which are aligned with each other when this clamp 11 is secured to a base.
The above-described conventional clamp 11 suffers, however, from the following problems. When the pipe P' is to be campled by the gripping wall 12, the support walls 13 and 13' are first separated from each other to wrap the gripping wall 12 around the pipe P', and after the pipe P' has been encircled with the gripping wall 12, the support walls 13 and 13' are brought toward each other to clamp the pipe P' with the gripping wall 12. For this reason, the support walls 13 and 13' are biased to move away from each other and therefore the gripping wall 12 readily becomes loose, which may result in the pipe P' coming out of position or coming off the clamp 11 during transportation of the product having the pipe P' mounted in position or during movement of the product kept in storage. Further, the looseness of the gripping wall portion may cause the mounting bores 14 and 14' to be offset from each other, resulting in stagnation of the flow process for securing the clamp 11 to the base on the assembly line or the like.